Line manager training and organizational approaches to supporting well-being

Dulal-Arthur, Teixiera; Hassard, Juliet; Bourke, Jane; Roper, Stephen; Wishart, Maria; Belt, Vicki; Bartle, Craig; Leka, Stavroula; Pahl, Nick; Thomson, Louise; Blake, Holly

Abstract

Employee mental health and well-being (MH&WB) is critical to the productivity and success of organizations. Training line managers (LMs) in mental health plays an important role in protecting and enhancing employee well-being, but its relationship with other MH&WB practices is under-researched. To determine whether organizations offering LM training in mental health differ in the adoption of workplace- (i.e. primary/prevention-focused) and worker-directed (including both secondary/resiliency-focused and tertiary/remedial-focused) interventions to those organizations not offering LMtraining and to explore changes in the proportions of activities offered over time. Secondary analysis of enterprise data from computer-assisted telephone interview surveys. The analysis included data from organizations in England across 4 years (2020: n = 1900; 2021: n = 1551; 2022: n = 1904; 2023: n = 1902). Offering LM training in mental health was associated with organizations' uptake of primary-, secondary-, and tertiary-level MH&WB activities across all 4 years. The proportion of organizations offering primary-, secondary- and tertiary-level interventions increased over time. On average, tertiary-level activities were most adopted (2020: 80%; 2021: 81%; 2022: 84%; 2023: 84%), followed by primary-level activities (2020: 66%; 2021: 72%; 2022: 72%; 2023: 73%) and secondary-level activities (2020: 62%; 2021: 60%; 2022: 61%; 2023: 67%). Offering LM training in mental health is associated with the adoption of other MH&WB practices by organizations. Suggesting that organizations that are committed to the mental health agenda are more likely to take a holistic approach (including both worker and workplace strategies) to promoting workforce mental health, rather than providing LM training in isolation. [Abstract copyright: © The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine.]

Citation

Dulal-Arthur, T., Hassard, J., Bourke, J., Roper, S., Wishart, M., Belt, V., Bartle, C., Leka, S., Pahl, N., Thomson, L., & Blake, H. (2024). Line manager training and organizational approaches to supporting well-being. Occupational Medicine, 74(6), 416-422. https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqae051

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 20, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jul 11, 2024
• Publication Date: 2024-07
• Deposit Date: May 28, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 12, 2025
• Journal: Occupational Medicine
• Print ISSN: 0962-7480
• Electronic ISSN: 1471-8405
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 74
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 416-422
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqae051
• Keywords: Mental health; line managers; organisations; occupational health; workforce development
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/35432396
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/occmed/advance-article/doi/10.1093/occmed/kqae051/7712333